Thread: FYI — "Cloture" means to "CLOSE" debat

Dear All,

In case you were wondering like me...

Cloture means "to close"...

It comes from the same word root as "close"...

it is essentially the very same word as "close".

Voting for "Cloture" means to vote to close debate for a bill. Then, of course, once debate has formally ended, what happens next? The bill gets voted up or down — in the case of S.1639, most likely up. That's bad, so we don't want to let the bill get a chance to breathe...

so we want our Senators to vote against "Cloture"...
ie, against closing debate...
so the bill keeps languishing in limbo, w/o getting a chance to pass.

Originally Posted by Bismarck

Dear All,

In case you were wondering like me...

Cloture means "to close"...

It comes from the same word root as "close"...

it is essentially the very same word as "close".

Voting for "Cloture" means to vote to close debate for a bill. Then, of course, once debate has formally ended, what happens next? The bill gets voted up or down — in the case of S.1639, most likely up. That's bad, so we don't want to let the bill get a chance to breathe...

so we want our Senators to vote against "Cloture"...
ie, against closing debate...
so the bill keeps languishing in limbo, w/o getting a chance to pass.

Here's a good, but complicated explanation of cloture. There is a better one here somewhere but I just couldn't find it. In essence, cloture limits debate, allowing it to advance for a vote.

Invoking Cloture in the Senate
Christopher M. Davis
Analyst in American National Government
Government and Finance Division

[i]Cloture is the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to set an end to a debate without also rejecting the bill, amendment, conference report, motion, or other matter it has been debating.1 A Senator can make a nondebatable motion to table an amendment, and if a majority of the Senate votes for that motion, the effect is to reject the amendment.

Thus, the motion to table cannot be used to conclude a debate when Senators still wish to speak and to enable the Senate to vote for the proposal it is considering. Only the cloture provisions of Rule XXII achieve this purpose.

There are several stages to the process of invoking cloture.

! First, at least 16 Senators sign a cloture motion (also called a cloture
petition) that states: “We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with
the provisions of Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby
move to bring to a close the debate upon [the matter in question].â€